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Anyone get to a point of recognizing an addiction to their smartphone? Did you try giving it up or somehow severely limiting your time on it per day?
It seems like most of us are totally immersed in something at all times. There’s never a dull moment to be left with your thoughts when the smartphone is by your side. Waiting 20 minutes at the DMV...hop on Facebook. Walking 200 feet from the produce section cereal isle...check some emails. Ohhhh, was that a ding? Maybe I have a text!!! Visiting the parents, but not really into the conversation...check out the specs on the new iPhone or browse through Tinder.
Those that are addicted probably know the routine. It’s pretty easy to spot addicts because they are always looking at a phone no matter what’s going on.
I remember my time before electronics and time seemed to pass by slower, there were details in the world I noticed more and emotions I had to deal with and think about rather than burying my head into a phone.
So have any addicts overcome the addiction? Give up phones completely (yeah, it sounds scary)? Did you switch to a dumb phone? Perhaps find the willpower to limit yourself to no more than say 30 minutes phone use per day?
I think I’ve reached a saturation point with knowing about others. I sorta have an itch to know who I’ll be with limited influence from the outside world.
I limit the apps I have on the phone and how often I let myself check them. I turn off notifications for everything except calls and texts, don't let myself check the phone while walking or riding my bike. I think it's a useful tool if you set healthy limits for yourself.
Giving it up completely is like chopping off a finger because you have a hangnail.
Is a smartphone so important to us that it’s now basically an extension of our body? I was very late to the smartphone party getting one about 6 years ago...as a younger person, a lot of people would laugh that I used a flip phone. I would just laugh with them because I didn’t know what I was missing. Am I happier now that I have a smartphone consuming massive amounts of time? Not really, but phones are now the new smoking. You just automatically need it to soothe yourself.
I still don't have a smartphone. I retired from IT in 2009, right about the time that market was starting to go nuts and never bothered to dive in. My wife has one, it replaced separate phone and PDA devices (actually, we tried that as early as 2006 before going back to separate devices till 2009). She treats it as a work tool, to the best of my knowledge the only apps on the phone are directly related to work or key parts of the Android system that can't be removed.
Even knowing what they can do, I wouldn't willing carry one. Doesn't matter if it were 100% free in all aspects (device and service). My life simply would not be improved by one, but it would be made worse (money spent vs spending it on something I actually enjoy).
Is a smartphone so important to us that it’s now basically an extension of our body? I was very late to the smartphone party getting one about 6 years ago...as a younger person, a lot of people would laugh that I used a flip phone. I would just laugh with them because I didn’t know what I was missing. Am I happier now that I have a smartphone consuming massive amounts of time? Not really, but phones are now the new smoking. You just automatically need it to soothe yourself.
Picking up the phone and using it as a pacifier is a choice that you make. A lot of people do always have their phones in hand no matter what the situation, but it's possible to leave it alone and engage with the world as you see fit, as well.
Just have a scheduled time to use it. I look at mine during my commute, for a few minutes during the workday. And during a certain period in the evening. I am not a huge addict, I put it away during the day.
I never went there and don't even have a cell....how have I made it to 79..love this desktop and it's just sickening TO ME when I see others everywhere on the smarts...can't be away from them for 5 minutes. I call them dumbs as people are dying with them, crossing the streets, driving in cars...it goes on and on. Making the Apples of the world RICH.
A great young man lives in our apt bldg and he visits me often and I know how sensitive and spiritual he is, just came back from India on a 2 month retreat, but even talking to me he looks down at that damn phone...I call him on it and we laugh.
I feel a sadness in some respects as MOST I see don't talk to people as they are on the phone. My grandson is addicted and he's 18.
Last edited by jaminhealth; 12-06-2017 at 10:47 AM..
I use mine to get work done, communicate with family, and entertain myself. I don't see it as a waste at all.
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